BAGUIO’S latest offering during this year’s Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Week was a 3-ton four-layered wedding cake that rose 20-feet high inside a mall on Sept. 6. EV ESPIRITU/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—The city’s association of hotels and restaurants unveiled for the second time a giant wedding cake to drum up Baguio’s reputation as one of the top wedding and honeymoon destinations in the country.
This year, pastry chef Art Nucaza, of the Baguio Country Club (BCC), supervised the creation of a 20-foot, 3-ton chocolate cake, which organizers said could be served in 16,000 slices. It was not known, however, how many people actually partook of the cake after it was unveiled at a local mall.
The presentation of the giant cake was the highlight of the 9th Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Week organized by the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Baguio (HRAB).
US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry K. Thomas Jr. led the ceremonial slicing of the cake.
Bigger, heavier
The first giant cake was created and presented here in 2007. The original giant wedding cake stood 16-foot high and weighed 2 tons, and was commissioned for 56 couples who joined a mass wedding.
“This time, the cake is bigger, heavier and taller,” said Anthony de Leon, HRAB president and BCC general manager.
The cake, which was decorated with fruits and flowers, had four layers and set on a base that measured 24 by 24 feet.
Mary Lou Galiste, BCC executive assistant manager, said it took 150 people, composed of hotel and restaurant management students and professional and amateur pastry chefs, to bake the giant cake.
They used 48 sacks of flour, 500 kilograms of butter, 12,000 eggs, 1,200 kg of sugar, 50 kg of baking powder, 50 kg of baking soda and 250 kg of chocolate powder, HRAB officials said.
Nucaza supervised the creation of the King Carrot Cake in La Trinidad, Benguet, in 2001; the longest raisin bread that was baked and presented in Baguio in 2004; and the first giant wedding cake in 2007.